It is known in the field of armament to use laminated armor panels for purpose of protection against incoming threats, made of soft layers such as Polyethylene (PE) or Polyurethane (PU). These soft layers have a low stiffening moment, are easily worn out, sensitive to environmental conditions, liquids and high temperatures. This may cause armor panels made of such layers to deform due to various reasons, e.g. stepping on the panel etc., forming week spots in the armor. In addition, armor panels having a curved or non-planner shape may be unable to keep that shape for a long period of time due to structural weakening of their layers.
The loss of shape may influence both the effectiveness of the armor and/or render it unfit for use, e.g. wrong shape may prevent proper close contact mounting of the armor on a body to be protected.
A deformed armor panel may remain in use until its complete wearing out, or if possible, it may be repressed by a pressing process similar to that in which the armor panel was made, especially in case of thermoplastic resin panels.
Also, it has been suggested to reinforce an armor panel by adding a reinforcing matter into its soft layers to maintain structural rigidity, or by adding layers thereto to increase the structural strength thereof, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,815.
It is also known from the art to use armor panels in which an armor member is wrapped with or covered by a material allowing to improve durability and serve as protection of the armor member from the environment, i.e. rain, hail etc.